


No More Tripping

by ReachFor24



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Communication, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-17 21:21:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28606641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReachFor24/pseuds/ReachFor24
Summary: Yes, another Nursey/Dex getting together fic. This time with Nursey's stumbling as a indicator of how in love he is with Dex, even if subconsciously.
Relationships: Derek "Nursey" Nurse/William "Dex" Poindexter
Kudos: 50





	No More Tripping

Ever since the Taddy Tour before they enrolled at Samwell, Dex has seen Nursey trip on just about nothing. He figured this unfairly attractive man just had two left feet, worried about how much he’d trip on the ice, but ignored it after the tour. 

When Dex arrived at Samwell and met Nursey again, they were not friends. Enemies perfectly described their relationship. Completely opposite in most opinions, Dex thought Nursey was an arrogant, preppy, privileged, hipster douchebag. And he knew Nursey hated him too, fighting over anything and everything. But through it all, Dex knew Nursey was hot. And he still wanted him, even if only for carnal reasons. Because he doesn’t think he can be romantic with him. 

Throughout their fights, or any time they were together, Nursey would still trip over nothing. Sometimes there’s a slight reason, like missing a step and tumbling down or catching a very slight lip on the concrete sidewalk. But Nursey was a complete disaster of a human when walking. 

But when Dex and Nursey got on the ice together for the first time, Nursey was graceful. His footing was solid on the slick ice. He was able to move wherever on the ice with ease. Dex couldn’t help but be surprised at this, but he didn’t think about it, except to be thankful that, being stuck paired with him, at least he can hold his own on the ice. 

***** ******

By the time their sophomore year starts, Dex will say he’s friends with Nursey. During the summer, they finally talked instead of yelling at each other. They discussed their backgrounds. Dex as a poor white guy in rural Maine, him and his family working hard for what they have, with siblings galore. Nursey as a wealthy mixed-race guy, the only person of color at his snotty boarding school, the only openly non-straight man there as well. They talked about their own privileges and how they’ve been forced to carry them. And they were able to understand each other. It was the most honest conversation Dex has had in his life, even if he hidden the fact that he isn’t straight either. 

After that much-needed talk, they texted daily, Skyped about weekly, and called whenever one of them felt like calling the other. They became good friends over the summer, and that continued when they arrived at Samwell for their sophomore year. 

When they arrived as friends, Chowder couldn’t hold back his surprise, used to seeing both of his best friends fighting, not joking around together. Bitty bakes a friendship pie for the duo, making another when Ransom and Holster shoots puppy-dog eyes at the resident baker. 

Now, whenever Nursey trips, Dex will laugh like he did before. But he’ll be the first person to help him up, make sure he’s okay. 

And while Dex still thought Nursey was unfairly attractive, he began thinking he may be able to date this graceless man. But he’d have to tell him he’s gay first. 

*******

After a particularly harsh win against Brown just after the start of the spring semester, Ransom and Holster throw a victory kegster. Let everyone release from a rough game and enjoy themselves, basking in their win. 

Dex entered the Haus, still early enough that the house was mostly SMH and closer friends, expecting another night stuck in Nursey Patrol. But once he came in, Holster bellowed out that Tango was on Patrol tonight. Dex wasn’t too sure how to feel about this change. He absolutely wanted to drink away the bruising he got today, but a part of him he’s not proud of misses the expected contact he normally has with Nursey during his Patrols. Nursey leaning on him, slurring whatever comes to mind as they stumble back to the dorms. Dex has begun enjoying these moments with his D-man. But his urge to let loose tonight wins out, as Dex heads straight for the tub juice. 

A few hours later, a few cups of tub juice down, a game of solo beer pong lost to Lardo, and currently nursing another cup of keg beer, Dex is pretty drunk. He knows he’s not blackout, keeping mental tabs of remembering the party as a whole. Bitty doing the first kegstand as a reward for scoring the game-winning goal, next Chowder doing a kegstand for a 1-goal game between the pipes. Nursey being corralled into the kitchen by Tango for trying to jump on a table to dance. Tango corralling Nursey into the kitchen again for trying to climb the railing for the staircase leading upstairs. Nursey dancing his heart out on the makeshift dancefloor, graceless but amusing to watch. 

After watching Nursey dance for too long, Dex and his liquid courage says screw it and joins Nursey on the dancefloor. As the song switches into something heavy with bass, Dex gets behind him, hands loosely on Nursey’s waist, and joins him for the song. Nursey turns around, his face turning into something of shock at seeing Dex being the man behind him. All Dex can do is wink and continue his dancing. 

Nursey, understanding that it is Dex behind him, smiles at Dex and turns himself around, grinding himself onto Dex’s front. Dex feels himself tight in his jeans, and he knows Nursey’s pushing his ass onto it. But if there was anything wrong, Nursey didn’t complain, keeping his ass pressed onto Dex’s clothed hard cock. 

They stay together like that for the first song, and in the same position for the next song. Once the third song comes on, Nursey spins around, a dopey smile on his face as they dance. Dex’s hands still on his hips and Nursey resting his arms around Dex’s shoulders, staring at each other as they dance to the next song. Nursey presses himself onto Dex, and Dex can feel Nursey’s hardon through all the fabric. They smile at each other until the song ends, with Dex pulling Nursey out of the Haus through the front door. 

As they walk to their dorm building together, Dex grabs his phone and shoots Tango a quick text, saying he had Nursey and he’s off Nursey Patrol for the rest of the night. Crossing the Lake Quad, a sober thought rushes into Dex’s head. He wants Nursey. He wants him _bad_. But he doesn’t want him while they’re drunk. 

With this worrying thought in his head, he steers Nursey and himself to a bench on the edge of Lake Quad closest to their dorm building, sitting them down. Taking a deep breath, Dex begins to talk, drunk lips giving away to sober thoughts. “Nurse. You’re hot. I like you a lot. But I can’t fuck you tonight.” Nurse lets out a whine, obviously horny and desperate. Dex feels bad, partly because he’s denying his friend, but mostly because he thinks for a minute Dex could be anyone and Nursey would have the same reaction, horny and wanting to get laid. 

Swallowing these feelings, Dex continues “I’d rather date you. Do this properly and not fuck up our friendship with a drunken one-night stand.” 

Nursey mumbles “Fine. Okay. It’s chill.” quiet enough that Dex almost didn’t hear it. 

Satisfied that Nursey, even in this drunken state, understands enough at the moment to be okay, Dex adds “We’ll talk in the morning, just so we’re on the same page. Now come on, I’m take you to my dorm.” With that, Dex gets up, hauling Nursey up off the bench. As they begin to walk, Nursey trips over air again, almost falling into the concrete sidewalk, except Dex keeps hold of him. Straightening him out, Dex chuckles “You and your two left feet,” his voice more fond than he wanted. Nursey looks at Dex and smiles, slurring “You always pick me up, sexy Dexy.” 

With his face beet red thanks to Nursey, they stumble back into Dex’s dorm room, both stripping off their sweaty clothes and Dex passing out clothing for them to wear to sleep. Placing Nursey on his bed, Dex decides to take his roommate’s bed, knowing he’s with his girlfriend tonight and won’t be back until the afternoon. Looking at Nursey as he lightly snores, dead to the world, Dex smiles and falls asleep himself. 

In the morning, Dex wakes up first, head pounding from the massive hangover of regret, knowing he had too much to drink last night. As he takes in the unusual sight of seeing his own bed, filled with one Derek Nurse, as he wakes up, Dex remembers the night before. The dancing and grinding, the lust he felt for Nursey, and the conversation he had with him on the bench in Lake Quad. 

Knowing they’ll have to talk when Nursey wakes up, he sits up on his roommate’s bed, head screaming at him. With his eyes barely open to avoid the light shining from outside, he reaches his mini fridge, grabbing a Gatorade and chugging half the bottle in one go to drench his cotton mouth. Taking in a breath as he finishes the long swig, his body, ever so slightly, stops fighting and begins to feel just marginally better. Satisfied with this, he reaches to his desk, grabbing his bottle of Advil, and takes a couple, pairing it with the rest of the bottle of Gatorade. 

As he waits for the pain killers to help his headache, he grabs a couple more pills and another bottle of Gatorade, leaving it on his bedside table for Nursey to find when he wakes up. Dex accidently catches a whiff of himself, realizing how bad he smells, and decides he needs a hot shower now. Grabbing his shower caddy and heading to the dorm’s communal bathroom, he just about exits his dorm until he realizes that he should leave a note for Nursey if he wakes up. 

Grabbing a piece of scrap paper, he scribbles out his message “Went to take a shower. Be back soon. WJP” and places it underneath the Gatorade. With the message there, he leaves his dorm room and heads to the showers. Once underneath the warm spray, Dex goes through his head what he wants to tell Nursey. Going through how he feels for Nursey, what he’d like, etc. 

Leaving the shower, much more awake and knowing what he’d like to say, he comes back into his dorm, Nursey sitting up in his bed, tired but drinking his Gatorade. Looking at his bedside table, he notes the pills are gone and the note has been moved, read by Nursey. 

Dex steps in and redresses in front of Nursey, willing his dick to stay limp as he puts on fresh clothing. Dressed, he sits in his desk chair, turns it around to face Nursey. Looking at his face, Dex notices how his eyebrows are scrunched together, headache probably pounding. Dex notices he seems to still be half asleep, eyes not fully open even as he finished his bottle of Gatorade. But what Dex noticed the most is what he always sees in Nursey: how incredibly attractive he is. 

Willing himself not to stare, Dex starts talking once Nursey finished the Gatorade. “Good morning.” 

“Uh, good morning?” 

With a slight sigh, Dex decides to go for it. “What do you remember last night?” 

Dex sees Nursey’s face flash in panic for a moment before schooling himself into his manufactured ‘chill’. “Not too much. Had a lot of tub juice.” 

Seeing through the lie, but noticing it being an out if he wanted to take it, Dex pushes on. “I still mean what I said last night.” 

Nursey’s ‘chill’ shatters into hopefulness, ignoring the lie he just told and asks “Really?” 

Dex nods, saying “I’ve thought you were attractive since I saw you at the Taddy Tour, but I’ve wanted to date you since the beginning of the school year.” 

Nursey smiles widely, simply saying “Same.” 

Dex rolls his eyes, muttering “Nevermind” but not meaning any heat behind the word. 

Nursey chuckles, getting out of Dex bed, and straddles Dex’s lap on the desk chair, sing-songing “Nah, you said it. You wanna date me.” 

Unable to even jokingly say no, Dex just says “Yeah. I really do.” 

With that, they lean in together and kiss. Slowly and chaste at first, turning into something with more heat as it deepens and continues. Dex can taste the ‘blue’ flavored Gatorade in Nursey’s mouth, ecstatic that he can have this. 

Suddenly they’re interrupted with Dex’s stomach grumbling. Nursey breaks the kiss, huffing out a short laugh, until his stomach growls in response. Looking into each other’s eyes, they both bust out with loud laughing, as Dex asks “Wanna get yourself showered and dressed?” 

“As long as you meet me in my dorm first.” 

“Can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be.” 

Nursey laughs, chirping “Your stomach says otherwise,” before heading towards Dex’s door, Dex quickly putting on his shoes, grabbing their coats, and trailing behind, jogging to catch up to Nursey. 

After Nursey cleans himself and redresses, they grasp each other hands, giving each other a quick peck, and head to Jerry’s for brunch. And on the way, Nursey does**n’t trip once. 

***** ******

A couple months later, in the Haus while Shitty’s visiting from Harvard, Shitty mentions a change he’s noticed. “Hey Nursey. When did you learn to walk?” he chirped. 

Nursey turned his head around, still cuddled up into Dex’s side on the couch, asking “What?” 

“You finally learned to walk here, brah! Never saw you tripping back at Andover, but you must have forgotten how to walk when you came here!” 

Dex, listening to the conversation, finally lets it click in his head. Nursey did stop tripping since they started dating. Not once, even when he’s completely hammered, has he tripped over his two left feet. With the realization, Dex shouts back “Since he started dating me!” 

With that, Dex grabs Nursey, pulling him closer, and kisses him. Breaking the kiss, Dex mumbles “Can’t believe you were _literal_ _ly_ falling for me, babe.” 

Nursey groans “Ugh, my legs wanted you before the rest of me did.” 

Chuckling, Dex kissed him again, breaking to say “They’re smart _and_ sexy.” 

Holster screams out “FINE!” from behind the couch. 

With an eye roll, Dex replies “How badly do you want clean clothes?” as the Haus’s washer was currently out of commission and waiting for the broken part to arrive to the Haus. 

Nursey laughs, mumbling “My sexy handyman” into Dex’s chest, as they continue to cuddle on the couch, ignoring the calls to stop being gross. 

**Author's Note:**

> Originally wrote this a few months ago, saw it in my 'Finished but not posted' folder and fixed a few grammatical mistakes. Just got tickled at the idea of Nursey tripping because he's pining/lusting for Dex, and finally stops once they get together. 
> 
> Probably could be better written (and I'm all okay for others to adapt any of my stuff, as this could become a much longer fic if I chose to), but I liked it well enough to put out there. Hope y'all enjoy!


End file.
